A trip to Niagara
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| The car which took us to Niagara |
I was planning to visit Niagara for quite sometime. Ultimately it materialized. I took two days off and used the weekends to visit Niagara falls. On Thursday morning (26th April), I picked up a Black Toyota Camry, which I booked a week ago. It was a superb car and was very smooth. We started at around 11-00 AM and hit I-71 towards Cleveland. It was a cloudy day and was drizzling. We covered the I-71 stretch in around half an hour. Everyone was very energetic about this trip. I was also quite excited as this was my first long drive in the states. The trip was starting from Columbus, Ohio; it was touching Pennsylvania in between and finally ending in New York state. After I-71, for a brief 40 miles, we passed I-271. After I-271, we took I-90, which took us through Pennsylvania to New York state. After, I-90, we were supposed to take I-190 but we did some mistake and continued on I-90. However, finally, we came back and reached our hotel. The hotel (Swiss Cottage Inn) was kind of ok for night stay. The position of the hotel is excellent.
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| Our Hotel |
In the morning, we took our breakfast and set out for Niagara(and this time, we were well equipped with GPS). We were all quite excited to take a first glimpse of Niagara. we have all read about Niagara in our childhood. I never thought that I would ever be able to get a chance to see it. To refresh my memory, I again went through some of the articles about Niagara.
Niagara consists of three falls Horse shoe, American and Bridal Veil. The source of water for all three falls is Lake Erie. Niagara river is originating from north of Lake Erie and flowing down all the way to Lake Ontario.
Horseshoe falls is the most powerful waterfalls among the three. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 165 feet (50 m). The average waterflow is 64,750 cu ft/s, which makes it the most powerful waterfalls of the world. The Niagara falls is situated in the New York state of the United States to some extent in Ontario of Canada. Though the falls (majority) is originated from USA, most panoramic view is observed from Canada.
I was thinking all these as I was driving past the bank of river Niagara, which offers a panoramic view. After a 20-25 minutes’ drive, we reached the parking lot of Niagara state park. It was quite cold outside. Though it was snowing in the morning, it was stopped now and we could see the sunshine. The falls could not be seen directly from the parking lot. But the gust of winds was carrying the mist generated from the falls and tinting all over our faces. The roar of the falls also could be heard clearly. Ishita and Sohan suddenly became very active. They started running after the Seagulls, which were flocking around all over the places. All of us were very enthusiastic and brimming with energy. We started walking towards the world's most powerful and discussed waterfalls. This is approximately 5 minutes’ walk from the parking lot. On the way, we crossed the Nigara State Park restaurant. And finally, we reached in front of the Horse Shoe Falls, which is
flowing with its own glory and gravity. The scene is simply breathtaking. The falls is cascading over a wide range of area of 2201 ft. The water is splashing on the rock and forming a dense water mist. As a result, the below portion of the falls is not clearly visible. The Canadian Ontario state can be seen clearly on the other side of the river.
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| Horseshoe Falls |
This observation point is called Terrapin point. This is one of the two observation points (the other being the prospect point). The terrapin names come from the fact that previously this area was filled with terrapin rocks. The rock resembles the shape of turtles and hence the name was terrapin. The Horse-shoe name came from the fact that the water is flowing from top in the form of horse shoe. It is claimed that this is the only falls (out of the three), which is partially situated in Canada. There are number of binoculars kept at the observation area to have a crear vision of the falls and the other side of the river. The falls came down and flowing down as Niagara river. The colour of the Niagara river is green. This is because of the fact that the falls grinds the stone underneath it and it forms a kind of salt, which is after mixing with the water becomes green. Both the sides of the river are engraved in stones. Some shrubs and other kinds of plants have grown on both the sides of river. The flying seagulls over the river were creating a mesmerizing scene and we were all spellbound by the beauty of the nature. In between, Sohan start running here and there. To keep him in control either Rima or me had to run behind him.
After feasting our eyes for a long half an hour, we started walking to our right, which would take us to the Bridal Veil falls. We can see the famous Rainbow bridge on our right hand side. This is the famous bridge, which is connecting USA and Canada. The bridal veil falls is within couple of minute's walking distance from Horseshoe falls. To go to the observation point, you have to climb down good number of stairs.
-to be continued
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